Page programme brings youth into political inner sanctum

As it turned out, the congressional page programme has been plunged into scandal with the revelation last Friday that Representative Mark Foley of Florida sent sexually explicit messages to at least one underage boy who served as a page.

But Duran8217;s Washington experience, she said, was a rewarding one, one that left her with a desire to run for office. That reaction seems typical of the hundreds of young people who have passed through the programme.

For more than 175 years, youngsters have worked as messengers and errand-runners on Capitol Hill. The page programme has endured cycles of criticism and reform and, in the 1980s, weathered a sex scandal that led to the formal censure of two House lawmakers. Over the years, it has become more structured and academically demanding, while retaining its up-close-and-personal appeal.

Working in the Democratic cloakroom8212;a members-only inner sanctum for lawmakers just off the House floor8212;Duran said, she got a candid view of the daily routines of politicians. 8220;That8217;s where they eat meals, where they answer phone calls, where they say: 8216;You vote for my bill, and I8217;ll vote for yours,8221;8217; said Duran, who was sponsored by Representative Xavier Becerra. 8216;8217;I was behind closed doors, and I got to see it all.8221;

According to a history of the programme by Congressional Quarterly, the term 8216;8217;pages8221; came into use in 1830s. The first Senate page, 9-year-old Grafton Dulany Hanson, was appointed by Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts in 1829. For more than 100 years, only boys were allowed to be pages. Republican Senator Jacob Javits of New York broke the gender barrier by appointing the first female page in 19708212;she had to wait another year for the full Senate to vote its approval. Five years earlier, Javits had broken the colour line by appointing the first black page.

The pages mainly serve as messengers, shuttling back and forth among congressional offices with papers or American flags that have been flown over the Capitol and are to be mailed out to constituents. At any given time, there are 72 House pages and 30 Senate pages.

To become pages, students must be high school juniors and at least 16 years old. They can be appointed for one or two semesters of the school year or for a summer session. They are paid at a rate that works out to 20,491 a year for Senate pages and 18,817 for House pages.

During the school year, pages go to classes8212;starting in the early morning so they can get their schoolwork done before Congress stirs. They work until the House or the Senate adjourns, which can be late at night. For many years, pages had to arrange for their own lodgings. Now, dormitories are provided by Congress and protected by the US Capitol Police. Pages are closely supervised, officials say.

The programme has not always been trouble-free. In the 1980s, two House members8212;Democrat Gerry Studds of Massachusetts and Republican Phil Crane of Illinois8212;were censured for having affairs with pages. An ethics investigation found that Studds had a sexual relationship with a male page, and Crane with a female. Neither lawmaker was charged with a crime, in part because the age of consent in Washington is 16. Crane lost his seat in the next election, but Studds was re-elected and retired in 1997.

8211;Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar 038; Nicole Gaouette